750
Opinion of the Court
1982), by "prohibiting parties from deliberately changing positions according to the exigencies of the moment," United States v. McCaskey, 9 F. 3d 368, 378 (CA5 1993). See In re Cassidy, 892 F. 2d 637, 641 (CA7 1990) ("Judicial estoppel is a doctrine intended to prevent the perversion of the judicial process."); Allen v. Zurich Ins. Co., 667 F. 2d 1162, 1166 (CA4 1982) ( judicial estoppel "protect[s] the essential integrity of the judicial process"); Scarano v. Central R. Co., 203 F. 2d 510, 513 (CA3 1953) ( judicial estoppel prevents parties from "playing 'fast and loose with the courts' " (quoting Stretch v. Watson, 6 N. J. Super. 456, 469, 69 A. 2d 596, 603 (1949))). Because the rule is intended to prevent "improper use of judicial machinery," Konstantinidis v. Chen, 626 F. 2d 933, 938 (CADC 1980), judicial estoppel "is an equitable doctrine invoked by a court at its discretion," Russell v. Rolfs, 893 F. 2d 1033, 1037 (CA9 1990) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).
Courts have observed that "[t]he circumstances under which judicial estoppel may appropriately be invoked are probably not reducible to any general formulation of principle," Allen, 667 F. 2d, at 1166; accord, Lowery v. Stovall, 92 F. 3d 219, 223 (CA4 1996); Patriot Cinemas, Inc. v. General Cinema Corp., 834 F. 2d 208, 212 (CA1 1987). Nevertheless, several factors typically inform the decision whether to apply the doctrine in a particular case: First, a party's later position must be "clearly inconsistent" with its earlier position. United States v. Hook, 195 F. 3d 299, 306 (CA7 1999); In re Coastal Plains, Inc., 179 F. 3d 197, 206 (CA5 1999); Hossaini v. Western Mo. Medical Center, 140 F. 3d 1140, 1143 (CA8 1998); Maharaj v. Bankamerica Corp., 128 F. 3d 94, 98 (CA2 1997). Second, courts regularly inquire whether the party has succeeded in persuading a court to accept that party's earlier position, so that judicial acceptance of an inconsistent position in a later proceeding would create "the perception that either the first or the second court was misled," Edwards, 690 F. 2d, at 599. Absent suc-
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